Life is nothing more than repeating series of mistakes followed by moments of clarity which help us to gain perspective on our pasts, thereby allowing us to move forward.

These moments of clarity are that which we should seek, for without them we remain lost and confused.

For me, there is no better place to achieve these moments of clarity than at the beach. On more than one occasion, the beach has brought me back from the brink of insanity. It has flushed my body of tension and pain. It has revived my awareness of my own insignificance and put into perspective the futility of worry and want.

The beach is a borderline between perceived and imagined reality. Behind me are work and smog; school and stress. But in front of me is an entire universe, pulsating with power I can only begin to fathom. Here is where I heal.

It’s amazing how we become accustomed to our daily stresses. After being surrounded by chaos and stress for long enough, we stop questioning it and begin to accept it as an unavoidable reality. Many of us march through our lives, sometimes for years, sometimes for decades, not ever stepping out of our habits for long enough to gain perspective on them. We distract ourselves with coffee and television, alcohol and homework. We buy into the perceived realities of those around us, blindly accepting them as our own.

Over time we lose touch with ourselves, constantly trying to align our own rhythm with the beat of the whole. Then we start to make mistakes. We start to make poor decisions based not in reality, but based on what it is we would like reality to be.

This is why I require the beach. I need to break this cycle.

However, I believe people can gain objective perspectives on themselves without the beach. In fact, I believe that we all do it naturally from time to time.

Music is the most popular escape. It grabs hold of our emotions and scratches an itch we can’t reach on our own.

Movies also provide an escape. They give us a chance to fantasize, as we find little pieces of ourselves in the stars. Sometimes unfortunately (but not always) drugs provide an escape.

For a few hours our bodies and minds leave the normal realm of reality. Our daily perceptions and worries fade in the distant background, leaving us on an adventure through parallel realities and universes.

The only problem with all of these distractions and escapes is that they are not dictated from within. These distractions are fed to us via producers or chemicals. They serve a purpose, but that purpose will be short lived. These distractions merely present us with a new other reality that we must then climb into. The trick is to find out which reality we already fit, and then let ourselves be absorbed by it.

We must find a place like the beach where our escape is dictated by our own thoughts; a place so magical that our bodies and minds have no alternative but to interact with each other naturally. This will be the moment of clarity I speak of. Finding this place and going there often will save you. It will allow you happiness, health, and clarity of mind for the rest of your life.

The past columns have been not so much a series of opinions as they were a series of confessions. I hope that I have made you think.

Jacob Moss can be eamiled at: [email protected]